The Best Of Best New Zealand Poems

Since 2000, the online anthology Best New Zealand Poems has showcased the most exciting and memorable poetry produced in this country. Here, for the first time, is a selection of this work in book form. Edited by founding publisher Bill Manhire, and writer Damien Wilkins, this anthology is an indispensable guide to the richness, strangeness, and liveliness of contemporary poetry. With over sixty poets appearing, there's classic work by some of the best-known figures in our writing, including Sam Hunt, Allen Curnow, Jenny Bornholdt, Cilla McQueen, Elizabeth Smither, and Ian Wedde; there are also compelling poems from new writers. Each poet's own note on the selection illuminates the work and takes us inside the writer’s personal workshop. The first decade of the new century comes into view as a vibrant, argumentative, restless period, with our poets unafraid of either political engagement or strong personal feeling.

A must-have poetry companion for all lovers of New Zealand poetry New Zealanders adore poetry, and this expertly selected and handsomely packaged collection of over 150 poems published since the 1950s shows exactly why: New Zealand poetry is, by turns, distinctive, affecting, joyous, revealing, moving, challenging, startling, profound and intimate. It is our lyrical national voice. With its poems selected by Siobhan Harvey, Harry Ricketts and James Norcliffe, all talented poets, academics, anthologists and poetry champions, this book deserves a place on every New Zealander's bookshelves.

Making unexpected connections, this book collects poems written from a variety of times, locations, and experiences—from the water frontage of Fiji, Fiordland, and the Mediterranean to the built history of Moscow and Berlin. Filled with a thoughtful musicality, a shambling romance, and a sense of humor, these witty and imaginative poems tell stories that range from a mechanical rat on Raoul Island to a black negligée and an ice-cream vendor in Moscow, and from a mayor and the Mistral in France to a new musical sound in New Zealand. Engaging and lively, this compilation highlights the persistent self-consciousness about the relationship between language and the world.

This comprehensive Anthology of New Zealand poetry in English spans more than a century, revealing the richness, vitality and range of styles and voices to be found in the body of New Zealand verse. With an eye to both fairness and range, the editors have compiled a colection of New Zealand poetry remarkable as much for its diversity of poetic forms as for its wealth of voices.

Exploring literature, cultures, and surroundings—both physical and social—the poems in this collection are firmly attached to the author's memories. With appearances by various other literary fellows, in person, dream, or conversation—including Curnow, Kawharu, Sargeson, Creeley, Mansfield, and Wordsworth—this book also features warmly translated versions of poems by Montale, Vita, and Jaccottet alongside glimpses of fantails and elegies for friends. Urging its readers to stay alert and pay attention to each moment, these poems likewise consider the acceptance of silence.

A remarkable anthology of queer New Zealand voices. We became teenagers in the nineties when New Zealand felt a lot less cool about queerness and gender felt much more rigid. We knew instinctively that hiding was the safest strategy. But how to find your community if you're hidden? Aotearoa is a land of extraordinary queer writers, many of whom have contributed to our rich literary history. But you wouldn't know it. Decades of erasure and homophobia have rendered some of our most powerful writing invisible. Out Here will change that. This landmark book brings together and celebrates queer New Zealand writers from across the gender and LGBTQIA+ spectrum with a generous selection of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and much, much more. From established names to electrifying newcomers, the cacophony of voices brought together in Out Here sing out loud and proud, ensuring that future generations of queers are afforded the space to tell their stories and be themselves without fear of retribution or harm.

Edited this year by acclaimed poet and writer Doty, the foremost annual anthology of contemporary American poetry returns. It is an essential guide to contemporary American verse and the poets who define it.